Monday, October 15, 2012

National Bosses Day

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By Diane Forrest

I have had several bosses in my life. My first boss was the father of the children
I babysat for. He was a nice man who
owned a skating rink. On Fridays I would
babysit his kids, and on Saturday I would work at the rink behind the
concession area. I don’t remember much
of him as a boss, I do remember that when I babysat, I only made a dollar an
hour, however when I worked at the rink, I made minimum wage. I liked that part.

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Once I started driving, I stopped working at the rink and
got a job working at a grocery store after school. My boss was a burly, grouchy man, but he was
very fair, and encouraging. He regularly
promoted me, and allowed me to change departments and learn different parts of
the store. I worked there for several
years, and during that time, my parents had moved out of the area and I was
living at the college dorm. He looked
after me like I was his daughter and taught me many lessons that I still carry
with me today.

Bad Boss(Google Image)

When I finished nursing school, I started working at the
hospital, and my boss there terrified me.
She was constantly trying to find fault with me, even though I
consistently received favorable comments from patients. Once she even wrote a disciplinary sheet
against me for getting hurt while helping a patient who was falling out of bed.
This was at a time when staffing had been cut, there were no available staff
members around to help and my boss told me I should have called a code to get
more help. A code would have indicated a
heart attack. I was so upset over this
action even the doctors went to bat for me.

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I guess I was raised in the era where you feared your
boss. They were like the principals in the adult world. People you tried to stay away from and not
get noticed. The relationship I have with my boss now is not like that. We were friends long before I started working
with him, which makes the transition so much easier. I still do my best so he doesn't sneak up on
me and hollar at me, but I’m not as scared of him as I was the burly grocery
store man.

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Today is National Bosses Day. Patricia Haroski, a secretary from Deerfield,
Illinois, originated National Boss Day in 1958 in honor of her white-collar
father, who helped all of his children with good advice throughout their
careers. It has traditionally been a day
for employees to thank their boss's for being kind and fair thought out the
year, however there is some who say it’s just a "Hallmark
holiday". So today, remember your
boss with a smile and thanks, or even some homemade cookies or a coffee
mug. Let your boss know that you
appreciate him and the fact that you have a good job.